《In the Arena of Faith》
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Call to a Consecrated Life
AUTHOR'S PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION
CHAPTERS
I. "LET US LOOK UNTO JESUS!"
The three main New Testament writings concerning the glory of Christ. The chief message of Hebrews 12.
II. CHRIST-THE EXAMPLE IN THE RACE
Christ as steadfast Hero, Leader, and perfect Exponent of faith, triumphal Victor, Example for His followers.
III. THE ANCIENT GREEK RACE-COURSE AND THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE
(as compared in the New Testament)
The "Gymnasium". The "Palaistra". The "Academia ". The Olympian and Isthmian games. Circus Maximus and Coliseum in Rome. The religious character of pagan sport and athletics. Running. Boxing. Wrestling. Horse races. Chariot-races. Gladiators. Qualifications for entry. The herald. The stadium. Five wreaths (crowns) of victory. The "white stone" in the letter to Pergamum. The peril of being disqualified.
IV. THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US
Three main reasons for our conflict. The attitude of the runner necessary to reach the goal.
V. THE CHRISTIAN RACE AS AN OBSTACLE RACE
The Christian and suffering. The sevenfold blessings of suffering. Seven reasons given in the Sermon on the Mount against the spirit of anxiety.
VI. PRESSING ON TO THE MARK!
Paralysing powers. Quickening powers. The problem of the third generation. The necessity and possibility of a revival.
VII. WASTED PRIVILEGES
Christ the Firstborn. The rights of the firstborn in Israel. The birthright of the Church. The New Testament general priesthood. The serious danger. The hour of decision. The birthright and the heavenly prize.
VIII. LISTEN! GOD SPEAKS!
The heavenly riches of the Church. Three chief mountains of God. The holy obligations of the redeemed. The heavenly glory.
PREFACE
WHAT we need is revival, a spiritual awakening of God's people, a powerful testimony to the world, a new vision and a fresh experience of the saving and keeping power of Christ through His word and the Holy Spirit.
This experience is possible, for Christ is living today! He is the eternal Victor, the Exalted One, the spring of all life and strength for everyone who puts his trust in Him. Christ never disappoints.
But God grants His free gifts only to faith. Only where there is trust and devotion, will God's fountains be opened. Only upon a life, fully surrendered, will He pour out His abundant blessings.
Where there was failure, He can give restoration. All weakness can be overcome. New joy and hope can fill our hearts.
That is the message of this book. It is at the same time my personal testimony. It differs from my previous books, The Dawn of World Redemption, The Triumph of the Crucified and From Eternity to Eternity in that those dealt with the general lines of development of God's plan of redemption, but this bears testimony chiefly to our personal experience of salvation. For the deeds of God are not only around and above us, they should be in us at the same time. The general plan of salvation must centre in a personal experience of salvation in the individual.
I am indebted very much to my friends Dr. and Mrs. A. E. Wilder Smith for their very great and most valuable share in the work of translation. Without their keen interest and united efforts this English edition would not have come to pass.
The book was published first in German in 1952. In this English edition there is added a special treatise on "The ancient Greek and Roman Racecourses and the Spiritual Warfare, as compared in the New Testament." We have given this discussion in a more detailed form because the knowledge of these Greek and Roman customs illuminates greatly the figurative language of many New Testament Scriptures which refer to them. At the same time it gives us a clearer understanding of the surroundings and some most important features of the outward conditions of the early Christian church. By elaborating the description of this special side of ancient culture in its relationship to the New Testament, we also hope to render a certain service to such students of Scripture who might want to make use of this book for the preparation of messages in their ministry, and therefore might be glad to have a more detailed view of these ancient customs and their history. Such readers may also value the Greek terms of these institutions as well as the references to certain Greek expressions in the Biblical text that are occasionally given in the book when this seemed helpful for a more exact understanding.
The chapter on the Races has been translated by Mr. G. H. Lang, the translator of my three previous books. To him I wish also to express my sincere thanks.
The book is written in a simple style. It sets out to express its message in a language understandable to all. It is designed as an appeal to heart and mind for new spiritual zeal and devotion, for new confidence and hope. It bases its teachings on the truths of Hebrews 12. Therefore at the head of each chapter is given the relevant quotation from Hebrews 12 so that the word of the Scripture and the meditation thereon may hang closely together, and the reading and understanding of the whole be facilitated.
May the Lord bless the testimony of this book. May He lead us all more and more into a real experience of His blessings. His promises are to all those who in holy earnestness reach out towards the prize, those who lift up their eyes to Him, those who do His commandment. In the arena of faith "let us look unto Jesus."
ERICH SAUER
Wiedenest, Rhineland, Germany.
INTRODUCTION
God's people have heard God's call. For only by this call has a People of God come into being, since "faith cometh by hearing" (Rom. 10: 17). By means of this call God's miraculous dealings with His church began. We cannot think or speak highly enough of the redeemed of the Lord. They are saved and reconciled, freed and blessed (Col. 1:13,14; Eph. 1:3). They are "elect of God, holy and beloved" (Col. 3:12). They are vessels of His grace, sons of the mighty Father, royal children, citizens of heaven. Even though many imperfections and weaknesses are indeed still present, we may be of good courage and have firm confidence as to the work of the Holy Spirit in His own. We are able to see Christ's image in His followers, yes, we can see Christ Himself in our brother and with all our heart we can rejoice in Him seen in one another. "The saints that are in the earth, they are the excellent, in whom is all my delight" (Psa. 16:3).
And yet----!
God's people need a new awakening! It is an alarming fact that, in spite of the mighty voice of God in the momentous happenings of recent years, there has been no really great lasting general revival, not in a single European country!
Certainly in not a few towns and districts the Spirit of God has been able to work in local movements. The general public has been spoken to with power by the gospel. Christians have been quickened and non-Christians won, triumphant songs of thanks and salvation have been heard in churches and tents, in halls and homes. For all these works of grace in town and country we cannot sufficiently bless the Lord.
And yet, amongst believers, we see so much earthly-mindedness, so much love of the world, so much anxiety, so much narrow egoism, so much exclusive concern for one's own little circle, so much firm holding fast to old forms which have long since been dead and which, not seldom, never had any solid warrant in Scripture, so much over-emphasis on secondary matters, and so much neglect of the true values that really matter.
We must seriously ask ourselves the question: Have our ears become so deaf that we are not able to hear the voice of God for the thunder of the battlefields, the roaring of the bombers, the crashing of walls, the collapsing of houses, the dying of millions of men and women, old and young?
Without a doubt, sin has been at work here. Not God but the demoniacal powers of world kingdoms separated from Him have caused all this. But in this thunder of catastrophies God has spoken, secretly controlling them and, in the last analysis, mightily ruling by them (cf. Jer. 51:20; Isa. 45:1-7): "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth" (Psa. 46:8).
How could God speak yet more impressively? First-class world powers have been smashed, towns have been changed to fields of ruins, irreplaceable works of art, centuries old, have been destroyed, millions of men have been killed. Under the judgment of God the estrangement of sinners from Him has worked itself out in a most terrifying manner to their own disaster.
How clearly ought God's people to have recognized God's voice in the midst of this Satan-driven whirl of history! To what a large extent should there have been power-filled witness, missionary energy, readiness to sacrifice, zeal to be sanctified, and willingness to show brotherly love, showing forth thus the fact and the fruit of really living for eternity!
And yet in general one has seen so very little of all this.
How can we expect non-Christians to awake if we ourselves are not awakened? How can "fire" arise if we ourselves do not "burn"? How shall life be begotten if we ourselves are not truly filled with "life"?
Things must be altered. God's people must awake. You must awake and I too! We must let ourselves be clothed anew by life-giving power from on high. The living Christ must become again the reality of our souls and take possession of all we are and have.
We must forsake all false quietism and reach out into a holy activity. We must learn anew to regard our Christian life as a "race," as a running (I Cor. 9:24), as "combat" in the "arena of faith" (cf. Phil. 3:14; Heb. 12:14). "I therefore so run" (I Cor. 9:26). "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy" (Acts 20:24; II Tim. 4:7), "that I have not run in vain" (Phil. 2:16).
"The prize" is waiting to be won (I Cor. 9: 24). "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).
"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain" (I Cor. 9:24).
But he alone has the victory who looks to Christ. For Christ also was a warrior. He was both pioneer and victor. For this reason He is also our example and source of power, our umpire and rewarder.
What we need is a renewed vision of the person of the Redeemer, a vision of the cross and a practical obedience to the ways of the cross, a thankful recognition of God's grace abundantly bestowing its blessings upon us. We must be taken hold of and flooded through and through by the power of His Spirit so that we may run in His strength unto the goal of our calling.
This implies in detail that we must stand the test in difficulties, in sorrows, we must be able to dismiss the spirit of worrying and overcome all spiritual weariness and symptoms of fatigue, we must be ready to bear witness and must have a missionary spirit. Brotherly love and sanctification, prayerfulness and hearkening to the Word of God, must characterize us. All this will enable us to run steadfastly towards heaven and glory.
Such is the purpose of this book. In the main, this is the message of the 12th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. And thus the message of God in those bygone days will become a message of admonition and warning for us today, a message of revival from the past for the people of God in the present.
It is these truths that I feel of the greatest importance. In fact, in them lies the fulcrum, the secret of our own intimate heart relationship to the Lord: that is, in personal experience of the crucified and resurrected Christ, in faith in a present full salvation, in the realization of the heavenly standing of the redeemed, in the spirit of joyful gratitude for the richness of blessing which we have received in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
On the other hand we must not fail to confess our very great imperfections. We must see our obligation to strive for practical holiness, the necessity for sacrificial readiness in vital missionary testimony, for steadfast standing of the test in all the trials of the present time. There must be intercourse with the Lord through prayer and through His Word, devotion and dedication, freshness in faith and pressing forward to the goal, realization of responsibility, holy earnestness, and, at the same time, joyful expectancy of His glorious coming again.
All this is possible only through Him, who is Himself the fountain of all salvation. "From Me is thy fruit found" (Hos. 14:8). "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, yea and for ever" (Heb. 13:8). Only an actual God working in the actual experience of man can help us; there must be faith for a realized experience of His person, a reckoning upon His presence. He is at hand (Phil. 4:5). He is here where I am. His presence is my salvation. He is the ever-ready helper at any moment in my own personal experience and He helps in every situation joyfully, the present living Christ here and now. "Jesus saves me now."
CHAPTER I
"LOOKING UNTO JESUS"
"THE greatest joy in life is to make Jesus Christ known." I read this in large letters on the wall of the Moody Hall in Chicago. This word of that great evangelist expresses the essence of his life and the joy received thereby. These words should also be the motto of the service and the striving of all the truly redeemed. We all live "by" Christ. We all strive "toward" Christ. We all wish to be "in" Him and "for" Him. Our life is only of as much value as Christ is in us. Anything that is superadded besides Jesus is worthless. It is true, the earthly and outward has its value which is not to be underestimated in this present life, if it is kept within bounds. We are far from regarding the wonders of creation as of little import, or giving ourselves over to cynicism or escapism in that we despise everything that is natural. But we must insist that only that will remain for our everlasting existence which is today directed towards Christ in us. Only that has eternal value which has been lived for Him and loved for Him, which we have done in Him, which we have suffered for and gained with Him. Jesus and Jesus alone is the life of our life, the eternity of our time, the value which can never be stolen, ruined or devaluated. For this reason everything depends on a practical attitude of living faith to Jesus Christ.
This is the fundamental essence of all New Testament spiritual life. To show forth and practise the truth and the life of Christ is the content and message of the whole New Testament. Jesus Christ is for all the New Testament writers the living and only panacea for all illness, weakness, and distress. Every one of them is perfectly sure of it: Jesus never disappoints: Jesus only wonderfully surprises. He never does less than He promised. On the contrary, He exceeds His own word, so that everyone who really trusts in Him can join in the happy exclamation of the Queen of Sheba: "Not the half had been told me."
It is not a rhetorical phrase but my most serious conviction when I state: If anyone were to offer me a ball of gold as big as the sun, that is a ball more than one million two hundred thousand times greater than our whole earth-all pure gold-saying, however, at the same time, "You must exchange your faith in the Lord Jesus for this," I should not have to hesitate for one moment. There can be only one answer: "Away with your golden ball into outer space. I despise it. Jesus is of infinitely greater value to me." And I know that I should not be the only one to give this reply. Every real disciple of Christ would give the same answer. Every true believer would so reply, just as promptly, without any hesitation. All created lights of this world are eclipsed to the man for whom Jesus Christ is risen as the sun of righteousness. "A greater than all is here!"
The whole New Testament speaks of this "greater one," of Him who is indeed the greatest of all. For this reason the central message of the whole book is the call: "Let us look unto Jesus!"
Three New Testament writings out of a total of 27 books form a special constellation in this sense: the Gospel of John, the Colossian letter and that to the Hebrews.
In John's Gospel the glory of Christ is radiated as seen from above. He is the Son who came down from heaven into this world. He was sent from the Father. Thus we see Christ as viewed under the aspect of heaven. This is salvation's basis.
In the Colossian letter we view the glory of Jesus from within, i.e., from within Himself, as the living, active Saviour and Redeemer, because of the exceeding greatness of His person (especially in chapter 1), and the all-inclusive sufficiency of His work (especially in ch. 2). Thus we see Christ as viewed under the aspect of His own person and His own work. This is salvation's centre.